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New Bullet Off on Right Foot

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Ron Spomer|December 10, 2014

The big tip pushes against more of the lead alloy core, forcing it open dramatically on impact.

Determining how well all of this works can’t be done on one or two deer, but so far so good.

I started shooting the new .270 Winchester, 130-grain Extreme Point bullet in Winchester’s new XPR rifle just two weeks ago. Right out of the box the Deer Season XP ammo is grouping sub-MOA in the inexpensive new rifle. This is Winchester’s first all-new bolt action design in some 75 years. It’s a push-feed action with a full-diameter bolt body pushing three-locking lugs. The bolt lift is short, quick, slick and solid, cycling rounds through the detachable, straight-stack, polymer magazine box smooth as silk.

Through the rifle’s 22-inch blued barrel the Deer Season XP loads chronographed just over 3,100 fps. All of this was good enough for a one-shot kill on a buck 353 yards away at a steep uphill angle. Because uphill angles always result in bullets striking higher than they do when fired on the level, I held for a 300-yard trajectory. The bullet caught the buck high in the lungs. The animal dashed about 50 yards and fell over. Post-mortem examination revealed massive tissue destruction and internal bleeding, yet the bullet exited, leaving a good blood trail.

The other buck, a young hunter’s first ever, was taken by an excited 14-year-old. He pulled the first shot from 260 yards and put the bullet too far back in the paunch, but the impact rocked the deer and slowed it to a standstill. After calming down, the young man steadied the rifle and parked his next Extreme Point in the buck’s heart.

Field-testing with both rifle and bullet will continue across the West in November and December, but it’s already looking like a winning team.